Being the Ricardos: Sorkin At His Best

Aaron Sorkin is one of the most unique screenwriters that is active today. Unlike most writers, his style is easy to pick out and notice because of the way he handles dialogue. From The West Wing to The Newsroom to The Social Network, Sorkin manages to create dialogue that generates drama from any situation, even the most mundane. Being the Ricardos is no different and continues this trend, assisted by strong acting performances by Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem.

Biopics or other historical dramatizations always operate better when the subjects and their immediate next of kin are less involved. This is because the ending result is more honest and accurate to reality because those with a vested interest in ensuring a positive portrayal as compared to an accurate portrayal will be involved with the movie’s production. It’s not necessarily inaccurate, but it does cause the viewer to call into question what they are watching. For example, if Disney put out a biopic about Stan Lee, the movie would probably not address the conflicts over ownership of characters between him and Jack Kirby. For Being the Ricardos, the movie does not shy away from telling the story as it needs to tell it.

The acting is great across the board, despite production woes leading to the casting of Nicole Kidman towards the beginning, and the ensuing backlash from people who wanted Debra Messing. Javier Bardem also puts on a strong performance, even if the movie is largely about Lucy and not Desi. The supporting cast also carries the movie with strong performances across the board including J.K. Simmons, Tony Hale and Nina Arianda. Had it not been for these performances, the movie would be average at best.

Aaron Sorkin may have a few huge movies under his belt as a screenwriter and directed The Trial of the Chicago 7 last year, directing is not his strong suit. That’s not to say that this movie is not well directed, but if an audience member goes into this expecting a movie like The Social Network or A Few Good Men, they will be disappointed because Sorkin is not David Fincher or Rob Reiner. The directing is fine, but it’s nothing special. Fortunately for the movie, the writing is good enough to offset and the acting elevates it as well.

At this point, the movie goes to streaming in two weeks included with the standard Amazon Prime subscription. As such, seeing it in theaters is not exactly a priority in a two week period including a plethora of theater-exclusive movies including West Side Story, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Nightmare Alley. There is also nothing about this movie that screams “theatrical experience” in terms of visual or audio because, as is the case with Aaron Sorkin, it’s a dialogue driven movie.

Rating: 7.5/10